Kiehl’s Uses Targeted Personalization to Lift Revenues

Kiehl’s saw a 11.59% lift in revenue per visit to its website after it combined its visitor segmentation and on-site behavior to create a targeted personalized experience.

Many of Kiehl’s skin care and body products are formulated to complement one-another as part of a total solution. The challenge Kiehl’s faced, however, was that its best customers were unaware of the benefits of bundling the individual products that they love.

In order to align shoppers with the skincare routines and products that matter most to them, the ecommerce team at Kiehl’s partnered with HiConversion to execute a personalization campaign.

The campaign allows visitors to shape their own shopping experiences by presenting them with offers and incentives to purchase related products. It also teases out the best-performing offers from a bank of options, allowing Kiehl’s to identify the most impactful product routines.

Using HiConversion’s product, Kiehl’s was able to run more than one optimization campaign parallel to each other. Other campaigns include targeting men with a special offer and the other supports Kiehl’s annual LifeRide on the West Coast. These other campaigns are already driving results for the brand.

The Kiehl’s team knew that a high level of customer empowerment required a solution that was capable of handling multiple variables, pages and goals simultaneously.

Kiehl’s first began by splitting shoppers into groups based on their status (new and returning) and interest in either Product Line A and Product Line B. For new visitors, interests were implied on search engine keywords. For registered customers, Kiehl’s used profile data to measure alignment toward either product category.

Visitors in each of the segments were targeted with one banner on the home page. Their experiences were then further shaped by their response to each offer.

If visitors clicked on the banner, that offer remained persistent throughout the shopping experience. If they didn’t click, they were presented with another banner until the offer bank was exhausted or until they completed a transaction.

By segmenting their audience into smaller groups then targeting each shopper with banners based on personal interests and online behavior, Kiehl’s empowered their visitors with choices that could drive their experiences along the consideration path.

This two dimensional approach allowed Kiehl’s to identify the most relevant offer for each customer class, which resulted in the 11.59% revenue per visit lift.

When Kiehl’s segmented their audience into two distinct groups, it gave Kiehl’s a clear view of the impact that each customer type has on the bottom-line revenue, allowing the company to identify the most valuable audiences.

Kiehl’s was able to handle multiple possible outcomes based on the visitor’s reactions to different offers. Each of these reactions constitutes a consideration path.

Each consideration path is tracked, allowing Kiehl’s to identify which overall web experience resulted in the highest overall revenue life.

The campaign report results detail the performance of each consideration path, highlighting the significant impact of shaping the customer journey across the entire sales funnel.